Bedell, William

BEDELL, WILLIAM: Irish bishop; b. at Black Notley, near Braintree (50 m. n.e. of London), Essex, England, on or near Christmas day, 1571; d. at Drum Corr, near Kilmore, County Cavan, Ireland, Feb. 7, 1642. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (B.A., 1588; M.A., 1592; B.D., 1599), was ordained priest Jan. 10,1597, and settled at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, in 1602. In 1607 he went to Venice as chaplain to Sir Henry Wotton, British ambassador at that city, and there he made the acquaintance of a number of noteworthy men, including Marco Antonio de Dominis and Father Paolo Sarpi, author of the History of the Council of Trent, the last two books of which, as well as Sarpi's History of the Venetian Interdict, he afterward translated into Latin. He returned to Bury St. Edmunds in 1610, and removed to Horningsheath, a neighboring parish, in 1616. In 1627 he was appointed provost of Trinity College, Dublin; in 1629 he became bishop of the united dioceses of Kilmore and Ardagh (County Longford); in 1633 he resigned the latter see owing to conscientious objections to pluralities, and the belief that the proper administration of the diocese required a separate bishop. His position was difficult; the dioceses were in wretched condition, and his earnest efforts to effect improvement stirred up opposition. Nevertheless he reformed many abuses and enjoyed great esteem among the people. He wrote a short summary of Christian doctrine in English and Irish (published, Dublin, 1631), and a translation of the Old Testament into Irish was made under his supervision (published, London, 1685). When the rebellion of 1641 broke out, he refused to leave his diocese, and, after suffering many hardships, died of fever brought on by the privations which he had undergone. His Life with the Letters between Waddesworth and Bedell was published by Bishop Burnet (London, 1685), and has been rewritten several times. The best biography is one by his son (ed. for the Camden Society T. W. Jones, London, 1872).